A mysterious clown keeps popping up on the shadowy streets of a British town, spooking local residents yet inspiring laughter across the world as his photos have gone viral on social media.
He's become known as the Northampton Clown, named after the town he's haunting. On Twitter, that's #northamptonclown.
No one really knows what his motives are. But people have been snapping photos of the decidedly creepy-looking jester with a deathly white face and a ring of red hair, according to the town's newspaper, The Northampton Herald & Post.
He is apparently inspired by Pennywise, the supernatural killer clown from Stephen King's "It," but he apparently hasn't behaved violently.
In all of the photos, he's clutching props like a bouquet of balloons on dark, empty street, grinning and waving.
A Facebook account for the clown created Friday -- that's Friday the 13th -- already had 118,000 fans on Wednesday, just five days later. The creator claims to be the Northampton Clown.
He took to social media to dispel some of the more sinister myths about the Northampton Clown.
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"It's not me in the papers," he wrote. "I don't terrorise people I just want to be spotted."
A recent message from the alleged clown: "I'll be seeing you all very soon (in the day!) but i'm going to lay low for a bit as i have a big surprise for you all hopefully due at the end of the week!!"
He ended the message with two words that would rouse chills in anyone familiar with Stephen King's novel and movie: "Beep Beep!"
